On a day like International Women’s Day, it is important to talk about how women’s rights and empowerment cut across various parts of our lives – whether we are women, men, or any other gender – across the world.

Maia Elliott (Global Food Security) and Professor Tim Benton (Chatham House, University of Leeds) explore how rekindling community spirit at Christmas can make our feasting healthier for ourselves and for the planet.

2019

On a day like International Women’s Day, it is important to talk about how women’s rights and empowerment cut across various parts of our lives – whether we are women, men, or any other gender – across the world.

2018

Maia Elliott (Global Food Security) and Professor Tim Benton (Chatham House, University of Leeds) explore how rekindling community spirit at Christmas can make our feasting healthier for ourselves and for the planet.

There is a growing threat to the UK’s food system, and most of us aren’t even aware of it. Phosphorus is an element that is essential to all living things; it forms a key component of DNA and is important for energy transfers in cells.

Dr Ciara Dangerfield discusses the outputs of her GFS-funded workshop that explored where food loss and waste occur across the supply chain, and how the scientific community can address these issues to make our food system less wasteful.

Dr Melanie Collins, International Coordinator and Strategy Manager for the Global Food Security Programme and Chair of School Governors, explores the role schools have in tackling future food security challenges.

If the fruit sector were a game, what would it be like? Monopoly – rich get richer, poor get poorer? Snakes and Ladders – it’s all down to luck? Dungeons and Dragons – highly complex and best directed by experts? Or maybe like Twister – needing strength and flexibility?

Shaking up understanding of diets at the Global Food Security policy lab for Early Career Researchers. We all make many, nearly automatic food choices daily. Think about it: What did you choose for breakfast?

For National Insect Week, Dr Tom Breeze from Modelling Landscapes for Resilient Pollination Services in the UK project, part of our Food Systems Resilience Programme, shares how bees are vital to global food security.

Bananas, the UK’s favourite fruit, appear at first glance to be among our most reliable and resilient fresh produce. They are stocked in every supermarket on every day of the year, and their price seldom varies by more than a few pence per kilo.

Zinc deficiency affects around 17% of the world’s population, mostly in developing countries. In Pakistan, the most recent national nutrition survey indicated that over 40% of women are zinc deficient. Could using a new type of flour in cooking help tackle this deficiency?

The Asterix fans amongst you will know that the Gauls have only one fear, namely that the sky may fall on their heads tomorrow. As Chief Vitalstatistix says, “but tomorrow never comes”. Whilst the Chief is of course right, we should remember that ‘tomorrow’ is always less than 24 hours away. Wearing a food systems hat, we need to take the threat of the sky falling in tomorrow more seriously.

2017

Carolin Reiner and Toby Park from the Behavioural Insights Team discuss the real cost of food waste in the UK. Carolin focusses on consumers, energy, and sustainability, and Toby leads on the team’s energy and sustainability work.

John Ingram of the Environmental Change Institute at the University of Oxford discusses the different strategies for addressing food system resilience and the new opportunities that these can create in the food sector.

At their inaugural meeting, the Global Food Security Science Advisory Group analysed recent events and identified a set of 10 priority research questions to address the food security challenge. Professor Tim Benton from the University of Leeds and chair of the advisory group, and the Global Food Security (GFS) programme’s Sian Williams explore the evolving research landscape.

Following the previous blog from Riaz Bhunnoo, Head of Global Food Security, on the opportunity for further research into food security using a ‘food systems’ approach, Professor Alastair Ager, Deputy Chief Scientific Adviser at the Department for International Development (DFID) explains why there is a need for this cross-cutting research and the challenges he hopes this will address.

The new GCRF hubs call is a huge investment in interdisciplinary research, with plans to fund a dozen £8 million-£20 million grants to tackle some of the biggest challenges facing developing countries. Riaz Bhunnoo, Head of Global Food Security, explains why this presents a great opportunity for research in food security, which cuts across the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and necessitates a ‘food systems’ approach.

CRISPR-Cas9 technology provides an extremely precise and powerful tool for modifying genomes with countless potential applications, many of which are in agriculture. The University of Warwick’s Jessica Finch considers what this might mean for food security.

Following an intensive masterclass in science communication, Claire Kanja and Lauren McGale have been named the winner and runner-up of the Global Food Security programme’s first ever ‘Speak Up for Food Security’ science communication competition.